Scarlet's Walk
by Sarah Cartwright
Summary: Sequel to "Song in Red and Gray"


_This one-shot is a sequel to "Song in Red and Gray." Like the first story, this is a song fic, based on Tori Amos' "Scarlet's Walk."_

_Rose Gillette belongs to BohemianCane04, who gracioulsy lets me borrow her. Rosalie, Scarlet, and James Turner are all mine._

The italicized bits below are lyrics to "Scarlet's Walk" and were written by Tori Amos. Who is a genius.

Of course, the Mouse and Jerry Bruckheimer own "Pirates of the Caribbean" and all media yet to be invented... But Disney encourages creativity. 

_-S. Carwright _

* * *

_If you're a thought  
You will want me  
To think you  
And I did invite  
A guest up until  
You announced  
You had moved in_

__Rosalie watched the wind play with sandy brown hair against a backdrop of long grass. Snatches of half-withered violets pulled free from the tresses, scarcely retained by the amber strands.

Seventeen and wild as the Caribbean: that was Scarlet Rose. Rose, Rosalie, Scarlet... All three names invoked the same image, though each name belonged to singular women. Two women belonged only to themselves, but Rosalie had belonged to Rose and now she belonged to James. Always to James.

That was how she knew who her father was. She needed to belong to something and she knew that she had not inherited that from her mother. Rosalie knew Scarlet was different: she was too much like Rose and too much like Elizabeth. Scarlet needed to fly: she needed freedom. The thought made Rosalie's heart sink.

She had known something was wrong, ten years ago when she heard the heart beat skip, then quicken within the chest. She could almost hear it cry out.

Will brought James's body home to her; he didn't allow his son to be buried at sea. He held his daughter-in-law until Rose found her way to the beach. There was never room for another's love or comfort when Rose was with Rosalie.

_"What do you plan to do with all your freedom?"  
The new sheriff said,  
Quite proud of his badge_

James was a merchant, a privateer, and a good man like his father. But not all pirates are good men. In a world where men take all they can and give nothing back, lives are lost and the ones left in their wake are shattered.

Captain William Turner of the Flying Dutchman ferried his only child's soul to his rest, then bore his body back to Rosalie... and Scarlet.

_"You must admit the land is now in good hands."  
Yes, time will tell  
That you just lit your lamp_

Rose died the next year, satisfied that she had out-lived Elizabeth Turner and that Scarlet had enough tenacity and vivacity to rule the world with. Rosalie burned her body and cast the ashes to the Caribbean. It seemed unfitting that Rose Gillette should ever be confined to a grave. Rose had called for Cutler and for James on her deathbed. Rosalie knew which man was her father, though she knew her mother didn't want the answer to that question. She knew her father was lost in those waves with no grave to mourn at. Now Rose could be given back to him; to the men she loved.

_I will follow her on her path  
Scarlet's walk through the violets_

The flash of green had already glimmered over the horizon and Scarlet was hurrying on her way toward the beach. She had seen her grandfather for the first and last time when she was seven: the day they buried James. Rosalie followed slowly behind, picking up violets that had been scattered in Scarlet's wake. Scarlet was the image of Elizabeth: would that please Will, or would it only make his heart ache for what was lost? Rosalie knew he ached enough without reminders: she did.

_Just tell your gods for me  
All debts are off this year  
They're free to leave  
Yes, they're free to leave_

One day every ten years the Captain of the Flying Dutchmen was allowed to make port. That was the price of life, the price of only a few days with the woman he loved. It was memories he thrived on, just as Rosalie now did. At least she had Scarlet, if only for a while.

_Leaving terra. Leaving terra_.

A child as wild as the sea could never be satisfied with life on shore: tethered to the world, to its expectations.

_There was a time_  
_When I thought_  
_That her destiny_  
_Should've been mine_

When Rosalie was seventeen, she thought she was wild and free, like her mother. She thought the wind would carry her away and she would welcome it. But her heart could never let go of James, of the beauty of grass. Rosalie belonged to terra; though sometimes she wished she could vanish like the sea-foam.

_Big brave nation_  
_But instead her medicine_  
_Now forgotten_

Scarlet brought Will up the hill with his arm over her shoulder. It was clear the girl had fallen in love as Rosalie knew she would. Rosalie could also read well the love (and the sorrow) in Will's face. She wondered if he had thought Elizabeth was standing on the shore that day. She had made the mistake often enough herself.

Though she fought it with all her might, there was a part of Rosalie that hated Rose and Elizabeth for the inheritance they left their granddaughter. It was thanks to them that her days with Scarlet were numbered. James would have stayed after Scarlet left, but he was deprived of his choice. Scarlet could never stay: it would kill her inside.

_"What do you plan to do with all your stories."_  
_The new sheriff said,_  
_Quite proud of his badge_

Will's embrace was familiar and comforting: he reminded her of James, though he felt so much older than his years. As Captain of the Dutchman, his body was protected from the decay of time, but his work and his life had taken a heavy toll upon his soul that was palpable. Rosalie said nothing beyond a warm greeting and led him back to the house where a hot meal was waiting.

This was how she showed gratitude and love.

Will had promised Rosalie that he would not find another to replace him aboard the Dutchmen until Scarlet had grown very old and died. He vowed to always look after Scarlet, even when his heart was heavy and its beat was slow within the deadman's chest. His sorrow would not take precedence over hers: he would endure after her to protect their legacy, while Elizabeth and James waited for him in Elysium.

In return, Rosalie made sure that as long as she lived, she would be waiting for him at the end of each long decade. The least she could do was give James' father a place to call home, a place to make berth and rest, if only for a single day.

_We'll weave them through  
Every rocket's red glare_

By dawn, Scarlet ran out of questions and fell asleep by the hearth with her head on her grandfather's knee. Rosalie sat in her chair, simply watching as Will ran his fingers through the soft brown hair and stared at the profile that would always be etched in his memory. She imagined James in his place: twirling locks of hair and tracing tired temples. They had been robbed of so much.

Three days was the sum of time Will had spent with Elizabeth in payment for forty years of ferrying the souls of the dead to the end of the world. Rosalie had been granted ten years as James' wife, ten as his widow.

After a while, Will gently lifted Scarlet's head and disentangled himself. Rosalie didn't stir as he moved silently toward her.

_And huddled masses  
You just lift your lamp_

"I don't want you to be alone," Will whispered. As always, he spoke with the deepest sincerity. Rosalie could almost hear his words repeated in the heartbeats that echoed lowly throughout the house night and day. His brown eyes looked straight into hers as though he could see the pain and the dread in her heart and he reached out to touch her face in comfort.

Rosalie heard her breath quicken and felt her eyes sting. For ten years, her thoughts had been only for Scarlet and Scarlet's dreams. For ten years she had swallowed her fear and her sorrow to protect Scarlet. There was no one to share her grief, to want what she wanted with her.

She buried her face in Will's neck and wept silently as she sunk to her knees and into his arms. He soothed her with hushes and kissed her hair as he rocked her. Rose could not come to snatch her chick from his arms tonight: he alone could comfort her, could understand her. Rosalie thought of Scarlet leaving violets in her wake as she ran to the shore, to the sea she loved. She remembered dancing in the waves once upon a time in her own youth, when she thought she could be wild and free. She wondered if she would ache less if she didn't need to belong: belong to Rose, belong to James.

_I will follow her on her path_  
_Scarlet's walk through the violets_

Then she realized that Will was like her: much as he loved freedom, he needed to belong. That was why his heart had always stayed on shore. With Elizabeth. He had belonged to her. Now the heart belonged to Rosalie, but it wasn't hers.

_Leaving terra. Leaving terra._

Rosalie dried her eyes and struggled to stand with thirty-nine-year-old knees that had been kneeling too long. Will followed her, standing near. She looked at the floor, but she could still feel his eyes on her.

"Do you want a bed?" she asked softly.

"Yes," he answered and when she looked up, his mouth fell upon hers.

_I will follow her on her path  
Scarlet's walk through the violets_

Rosalie had only kissed James. Will's kiss was so similar, warm and gentle, but desperate. James was never desperate. They were too young then to know desperation, but Rosalie had grown well acquainted with it over time. Thoughts of belonging fluttered through her mind, but there was no one left to belong to, for either of them. Life had taken James and Elizabeth away from them.

The heart quickened and grew louder and Rosalie's quickly matched its rhythm. Before either of them could regain their senses, she led Will into the bedroom and shut the door. His mouth and arms were waiting for her when she turned, both loath to be deprived of her warmth.

_Just tell your gods for me  
All debts are off this year_

Will undressed her like James: with the reverence and devotion of a lover and friend. His caresses were similar, his moans familiar, but Rosalie could feel a need within him that James had been fortunate enough to have never known. She understood that need: decades of longing that was never quenched and never would be. It filled her as well.

_They're free to leave  
Yes, they're free to leave_

For the first time in over ten years, Rosalie felt a man's skin against her own amidst linen sheets and hand-made quilts. Will's hands and mouth explored her body, tracing places that had been old haunts to James and finding parts that had never truly been touched, while Rosalie charted and roamed plains and valleys: each one warm, alive, and real. Rosalie and Will slept entwined in each other's arms, both memorizing this feeling of being near another human being, of being loved if only a little, because both knew their memories would have to be enough to last ten years of solitude. They Turner's had learn to make a lifetime out a single day.

_Leaving terra. Leaving terra._

During the day, they kept their eyes fixed upon Scarlet, their darling and their love. But whenever Will was by her side, at the table or as they followed Scarlet down the path that wound through the dunes, Rosalie would feel his fingers wrap themselves around her hand. She understood: he was making sure that she never felt alone when he was near.

_If you're a thought  
You will want me  
To think you_

Rosalie laughed within herself as she thought of how proud Rose would have been that her daughter had found the heart and freedom to take another man to her bed, a forbidden man to her bed. Perhaps there was some wildness in her after all?

Will wasn't James and when he came back again she would be nearly fifty. But he would come back, she knew that. He had entrusted her with his heart.

_Just tell your gods for me  
All debts are off this year_

Scarlet wept when sunset finally drew near. Rosalie stood by as Will brushed the tears away with his thumbs and promised they'd meet again, at sea and on shore. That was their new pact: Scarlet would become a privateer and Will would meet her on the high seas whenever he could. Rosalie knew it was a thin promise, but she also knew that Will would never break it.

_If you're a thought  
You will want me  
To think you_

The sun was racing to meet the sea and Will had no choice but to break away from Scarlet's embrace and make for the row-boat waiting in the surf. Rosalie stood still in the sand, watching silently. Scarlet would need her to hold and soothe her all night, but she this moment for her own.

Will stopped and looked back at her, that same need in his eyes. He closed the short distance between them and kissed her, not caring that Scarlet and all the world could see.

_And I did  
And I did_

Rosalie felt tears run down her cheeks and knew he could taste the bittersweet joy she had found. James had inherited his integrity and his honor from Will. In her arms was a man who would not make her his dark secret to be hidden away. She had never been loved any way but purely, and she knew now that she never would be.

_And I did_  
_And I did_

Will left with a caress and a stolen kiss. He had no choice, though it comforted both of them to know what he would have done had he been given it. Rosalie watched with a heart that felt full for the first time in ten years, staring after him, and after the Flying Dutchman, until both vanished into the horizon. Waiting for a man to come back from sea was not so bad, not when she knew that he would always return. Solitude would not be so cold now that he belonged to her and she to him.

Only when he was gone, did she turn to face her daughter. She had prepared herself for the pain and betrayal of a girl whose mother had betrayed her father's memory. She didn't fool herself that Scarlet would be able to understand, not when she was so young and still so absorbed in her own dreams. Rosalie always knew she would lose Scarlet, but she never imagined it would be like this.

Then she turned around… And Scarlet was smiling at her.

_I will follow her on her path  
Scarlet's walk through the violets  
Just tell you gods for me  
All debts are off this year  
They're free to leave  
They're free to leave_


End file.
